Mafia Princess
by RockerChick08
Summary: I don't want this kind of life for you Alex!" Justin exclaimed, eyes wild and passionate. "Then get out of it JUSTIN!" Alex threw back just as passionate. "Cause I'm not leaving without you." AU Jalex Rated M for language, violence, and sexual situations
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't own any thing except for plot and certain characters. Thought I'd change things up a bit. Please let me know if you like. Enjoy!_

"**Mafia Princess"**

**Chapter 1**

Justin Russo huffed through his nostrils and panted as he lifted the heavy barbell over his head and brought it down to his chest, only to lift it once more.

He did this 15 times before placing the barbell back onto it's wrack and staring, from his spot on the cushiony work out bench, up at the far off ceiling of the gym he was in.

His eyes narrowed up at the ceiling and his stare turned into a glare as he played the previous conversation, with his dad, in his head.

_**15 minutes earlier in Jerry Russo's office at the Miami, Florida base**_

"_Justin you've got to learn to control your temper." Jerry Russo told his eldest son, leaning over the large cherry wood desk before him and eyeing Justin. _

_Justin looked back at his father, jaw clenched and a defiant look on his face. He'd known right away as soon as he got the phone call from his father, what their conversation would consist of, but he wasn't going to get in trouble for something that wasn't his fault! _

"_If he hadn't been running his mouth so damn much, things wouldn't have gotten out of hand." The dark haired man argued. _

"_Justin this is the 5__th__ guy, of mine, you've sent to the hospital since you've been with us! __**The 5**__**th**__** guy**__! Anyone else would've been dismissed and sent away a long time ago for this kind of violent behavior!" he explained to the 17 year old. "This can't keep happening Justin – _

"_He was making __**jokes**__ about – _

"_I know what he was doing Justin!" Jerry interrupted. "And I know it wasn't right but __**5 guys,**__ Justin?! This has got to stop! The fighting has got to stop!" he finished._

"_Well if you didn't hire such low lifes – _

"_**It's got to stop!**__" Jerry roared, voice seemingly echoing throughout the office._

_Justin sighed loudly and his, jaw clenched tightly as he quickly leaned up to the front of his seat. He looked very much like he wanted to say something, but he soon threw himself back into the back of his seat and was quiet. He could tell from the tone of his father's voice that his words were unnegotiable. _

"_Now…" Jerry sighed, sensing that his son was finally ready to listen. "You're good at what you do, Justin. You're one of the best guys I have, not to mention you're my son…I don't want to do this, but if you let this happen again…you're going to have to leave – _

"_What?! Leave the business?! You can't __**do**__ that!" Justin objected, looking both surprised and outraged at his father's words. _

"_I __**can**__, and I __**will**__" Jerry spoke with finality." I will not show favoritism just because you're my son, Justin." He informed the young man before him. "Now I don't want it to come to that though, so son…__**don't**__ let this happen again." He firmly told Justin. "__**No more fighting**__." Jerry finished, a stern look on his face. _

_Justin didn't answer. He just sat there, his face the epitome of the word "agitated." He was never one to let anyone speak to him any kind of way, he knew this and his father knew this; heck everyone knew it. The thought of not being able to do any thing about people who crossed the line, people who disrespected him, or people he just did not like, was not a comfortable thought. _

"_Understand, Justin?" Jerry spoke, voice loud and strict. _

_Justin didn't say anything. His jaw clenched tightly and he balled his hands into fist, still livid at the ultimatum his dad had presented to him._

"_**Understand?**__" Jerry repeated, voice louder than before. _

"_Yeah, alright. Whatever, no fighting. Got it." Justin spoke before angrily rising from his seat. _

"_Hey!" Jerry spoke. Justin could hear the anger in his voice and turned around to meet the disapproving eyes of his, still seated, father. "You don't leave until I dismiss you; don't forget yourself." He reprimanded the 17 year old, glare heated and meaningful on his face. _

_Justin nodded, suddenly embarrassed by his actions. He knew better than to leave his father's presence before being dismissed. Although he was angry, he still needed to act accordingly and not childishly. _

"_Sorry" he muttered before retaking his seat. _

"_I want you and your crew to run out to the docks. There's a shipment coming in today. Should be in sometime between the next half hour and 8 o'clock tonight. I need you guys there to pickup." Jerry finished. _

"_Alright. We'll be there." Justin told his father, a business-like, non-playing look on his face._

"_Good" Jerry spoke. "Now get out of here."_

Justin sighed at the thought of the conversation before retrieving the barbell from its position and proceeding to do 15 more lifts.

He couldn't believe it had come to this. He was now on probation for fighting. He couldn't fight anymore of his dad's workers and if he did, he'd have to leave the family business and he was **not **doing that.

Justin placed the barbell back onto its wrack and then sat up into an upright position. He looked around the large gym of his family's Miami base.

There were many of his dad's workers scattered around the gym. Ten of them were immersed in a basketball game. Four of them were over in the weight section with him and were lifting passionately. Eight of them were watching and cheering on the basketball players and three of them were talking off to the side.

Justin glanced down at the silver Rolex on his right wrist, wondering when his crew would arrive so that they could head down to the docks. He had called them immediately after leaving his father's office and had then decided to work off some of his anger. It had only been slightly effective.

_Maybe just a little more lifting will calm me down to the point where I can at least go to the docks with a straight head…_the 17 year old thought to himself, moving to lay down once more when suddenly a loud bang resonated throughout the gym as the doors loudly banged open. Justin looked up in the direction of the noise and felt his mood lift substantially at the surprising visitor.

A smile lit the Mob Prince's face as his eyes landed on the one person who could always make him smile, no matter what the circumstance.

It was ironic that the one person, who could always make him smile, was also the one person who could rile him up like no other and make him angrier than a bull trapped in a red room.

Alex walked towards him, eyes sparkling as she did so and a wide smile across her face. She waved at her brother and he casually nodded his head in return, small smile still present on his face as he stared at his sister. She was wearing a white sundress with matching white and brown sandals. She had a pair of simple yet gorgeous diamond studs in her ears. Her make up was minimal and simple as always. She was beautiful, the most delicate display of beauty he had ever seen.

Judging by her cheerful demeanor, she was speaking to him again; Justin realized, thinking back to the argument they'd had that morning. There hadn't been any thing particularly unusual that they'd fought over; in fact Justin couldn't even remember what they'd been fighting over. They fought all the time.

During his journey over her body, Justin's eyes paused as he noticed a small white card in Alex's hand. He remembered right away that today had been the day Alex had planned to finally take her driver's test. Could this be her license? Had she gotten it?!

He looked back up at Alex, a meaningful questioning look in his eyes as he eyed the card once more before looking back up at his sister.

She nodded excitedly, answering Justin's non-verbal question.

It _was_ her license; she had gotten it.

Justin raised his eyebrows at her, a look of jovial interest on his face, but his smile soon faltered as voices broke through his and Alex's silent conversation.

"Look who's here." Justin heard one of his dad's workers say just loud enough for him to hear.

Justin glanced sideways, breaking eye contact with Alex as his eyes landed on Smitty, the 25 year old who had spoken. Justin silently wondered when the man had entered the gym since he certainly would've noticed, considering he had never took much of a liking to the older man, who's eyes were glued onto Alex. Justin did not like the suggestive tone in the other man's sentence.

"Damn." Bobby, a 22 year old worker, muttered in obvious agreement to Smitty's suggestive tone as he stared unyieldingly at Alex.

Justin felt his blood start to boil at the way the man was hungrily ogling Alex and at the same moment he noticed that all of the workers in the gym had seemingly stopped what they were doing and were staring at his sister.

"She sure is sexy." Fabio, one of his dad's older employees, put in.

Justin's jaw began to clench at the 30 year old's comment. Any normal day, this situation would've resulted to Justin angrily punching Fabio in his ribs and beating him and both of his buddies until it hurt him to hit, but today he was on probation and he couldn't do that. He couldn't fight.

"What I wouldn't give to have my way with her." Smitty spoke, the young looking, bald-headed, and well built man biting his lip suggestively.

Justin's hands balled into fists as he glared angrily at the muscular man; he noticed several head nods throughout the gym; this did nothing to calm his rising anger. How dare these men look at Alex the way they were!!

"Dream on. You'd sooner get with a _man_ before Alex Russo gave some to _you_." Bobby spoke, echoing Smitty's comment. "Everyone knows she's high maintenance."

"I could get her though." The 25 year old spoke with a devious glint in his eyes.

Justin had to bite his lip to keep from saying anything. _I'm on probation. _He continuously reminded himself. He couldn't get angry and start a fight.

He fiercely fought to control his out of control temper. He'd ruin every thing for himself if he let something happen. It was damn hard to restrain himself though, with the way Smitty was looking at his sister. He wanted nothing more than to beat the living crap out of the guy, or at least knock the crap out of him.

"The boss would kill you if you did." Fabio reminded, not even wanting to imagine the things Jerry Russo would do to anyone who "violated" his precious daughter.

"It'd be worth it though." The 25 year old echoed, looking at Alex with lust filled eyes.

Justin was now struggling intensely to keep his anger in check. His fists were clenched so tightly that it was painful, immensely painful.

"Check out those cups…" Smitty continued, eyes zeroing in on Alex's nicely sized breasts.

Justin's eyes squeezed shut as he willed himself to stay silent and stay stationary, but he was quickly losing his composure at the men's graphic talk about his sister's appearance.

"And those legs..." Fabio echoed, ogling Alex's perfect legs.

"You guys better shut the **fuck** up." Justin growled, finally breaking as he rounded on the three workers and glared dangerously as he pointed a threatening finger at them. "None of you bitches are even half as good as she deserves so shut the fuck up." He spoke out through gritted teeth, fighting to keep from lashing out and taking on all three of the men before him. Lord knew he would do it in a heartbeat if he could.

Every set of eyes in the gym left Alex and focused instead on the visibly very angry Justin.

"Don't get him started guys. You know he's overprotective of his sister." Bobby told his two companions, looking slightly nervous as he thought back to the fight (more like physical beating) he had witnessed the previous week between Justin and another one of the older workers. Everyone else in the gym seemed to agree with his reasoning and went back to their previous work outs and tasks; his two companions however, appeared unphased by Justin's outburst.

"Calm down Jr. we're only talking." Fabio waved off. This sign of opposition gained the attention of nearly all the workers in the busy gym. They were torn between watching the unraveling plot and running clear out of the vicinity; many soon decided on secretly watching, attempting to be immersed in conversation and weight lifting while really watching the entire altercation that was unfolding before them.

"Yeah, and your old ass is half her age so shut the fuck up before I shove my fist into your fucking throat." Justin roared back at the older man.

"Hey!" Smitty spoke up, coming to stand in front of Fabio as he stared challenging at a livid Justin. "Calm down little tike. That mouth is going to get you into a lot trouble." He sneered.

"How bout we start some trouble _now_ "Smit?!"" Justin threw back, wanting nothing more than to wipe the menacing grin off of the older man's face.

"Now now young one; I don't think _daddy dearest_ would appreciate you getting into a fight with one of his best workers." The 25 year old spoke, feigning a look of disappointment. "Might get you into trouble." He finished, chuckling as he eyed Justin with a boasting and meaningful stare.

Justin glared coldly and lividly at the smirking man before him, wondering how in the world _he_ knew about his probation.

He growled out in frustration, fists clenched at his sides. This man had been talking about his sister! He had been talking about Alex and having sexual relations with her, and now he was openly challenging _him_, and Justin couldn't do a damn thing about it. He was livid, borderline crazy at having to restrain from fighting the man before him.

"I swear to god I'm going to beat the fucking crap out of you, you worthless fuck." He angrily exclaimed.

"Really?...When?" Smitty threw back, knowing very well that it would not be happening _then_.

Justin was furious. "Soon motherfucker! That's a promise." He told the older man before turning on his heels.

"Looking forward to it Jr.!" Smitty spoke to the back of a retreating Justin.

It took every fiber of Justin's being to keep him from turning around and punching Smitty dead across his thick jaw. Every retreating step he took was literally painful for Justin who **never** backed down from a fight. **NEVER.**

"Here she comes guys." He heard Smitty say before a chorus of "Hello Alex's" was heard around the gym.

Justin continued to storm out of the gym. He had to get out of there before he really _did_ start a fight.

He was unaware of the crowd of nearly thirty guys crowding around his sister as if she were some extremely famous celebrity. Of course they did nothing but attempt to talk to her. They'd be found dead in some river if they did any more.

"What brings you here, baby doll?" he heard Smitty's unmistakable voice through the many other garbled voices.

_Only I can call her tha_t! Justin thought furiously as he swore to himself that he would in fact, no matter what the consequences might be, fight Smitty and kick his ass worst than any of the other men he'd fought. He would pay.

"You look very nice today." Justin heard Fabio yell.

"Thank you. I'm here to see Justin though; Where'd he –

Alex started before her eyes finally broke through the crowd and landed on Justin as he walked through the door that led to the locker room. She hadn't seen much of him before he'd disappeared into the room but judging from his tense stance and clenched fists, he was angry. She could tell this. His anger was nearly radiating off of him.

"Excuse me." She suddenly said, her eyes still fixed on the room her brother had just entered. She broke through the crowd and ran across the gym until she finally reached the locker room. She quickly busted into the men's locker room and what she saw inside, made her stop in her tracks. Justin was wildly storming around the locker room, he was punching and kicking the lockers and causing a whole lot of damage to them too. He was a lot stronger than he'd been a year ago.

"Justin!" Alex exclaimed in concern as she watched her brother basically destroy the locker room. He was going to destroy every thing or worst, seriously hurt himself.

"Stop it!" she attempted once more to the wild and out of control man before her.

Alex's voice was only a distant sound to Justin as memories flooded his mind and voices filled his head. He heard Smitty, Fabio, and Bobby's sexual comments and his anger flared. He heard Smitty's challenging words and his anger boiled over as he paused in front of one of the lockers and began to let all of his anger and frustration out of him. He punched it continuously.

"Justin, stop!!" Alex attempted with even more passion than before. "Damn it! Justin please calm down!" she screamed. He was seriously going to hurt himself.

Justin did not stop though. He punched the locker over and over again. He heard Smitty's taunting words, he saw his menacing smile; he saw a young teen being shot and he saw himself running over to the bleeding and dead teen whom was his friend.

At this random but familiar flashback Justin collapsed into the obliterated locker, completely emotionally worn.

His sister's presence became noticeable and less distant to the emotionally defeated man and the voices and images disappeared.

"Justin" Alex whimpered, staring down in horror at her brother's bleeding knuckles. Her eyes became watery at the sight and she wrapped delicate hands around her brother's waist.

He was slightly limp as he fell into her grasp and she led him over to the single center bench in the locker room.

"Wait here." She instructed before running into the hall and heading towards the ice machine.

Justin wrenched his mind away from the painful childhood memory that had invaded his angry thoughts. It was a memory he didn't like to think about, a memory he **would** not think about. There were more pressing issues, issues that he could _change. _None of those men would ever be with Alex. None. Ever.

Alex hastily reentered the locker room, a bag of ice in hand.

"Here" she spoke softly, kneeling on the ground in front of Justin, grabbing his left fist into her hands, and gently pressing the ice onto it.

"Gosh Justin! What's wrong?!" Alex demanded staring up at her brother who now looked much less worn out and much more angry. Justin didn't answer; he only silently glared at the clench fists resting in his sister's hands, thinking of the comments the men had made, only seconds ago, about his sister.

Alex sighed before taking a seat next to the angry 17 year old and releasing his injured hand. "What happened, Justin?" she softly attempted once more, voice taking on a more concerned tone. "What's wrong?" she questioned, reaching up and slowly running her fingers into and through the soft, curly strands of hair on Justin's upper neck, an action she knew calmed him.

"Why do you have to dress like that in front of them?" he spoke quietly, more quietly than Alex had anticipated him to sound, anger disintegrating. Then suddenly he jerked away from his sister's gentle touch. "Stop it." He told her, briefly glancing/glaring at her before continuing his silent glare at his hands.

"I need to calm you down." Alex protested lifting and placing her legs beneath her to gain some elevation over her brother. "You _need_ to calm –

"I don't want to calm down Alex!" Justin exclaimed, interrupting his younger sister mid-sentence as he openly glared at her, anger resurfacing. "Why do you have to dress like that in front of them?!" he demanded, looking her over.

"Dress like _what_, Justin?!" Alex threw back, rising from her seat, anger and frustration in her voice. "I'm not dressed any _outrageous_ way! I'm wearing a simple sun dress; what is the problem?!" she demanded back, pacing in front of her brother, her emotions confusing and scattered.

Justin ran a frustrated hand through his short hair before sighing. He knew he was being ridiculous. He was letting his anger and frustration out on his sister and that was the last thing he wanted to do. She didn't deserve that.

"I don't…" he started, jaw clenched in anger as he eyed his sister with eyes of contempt. "I don't like the way they talk about you." He finally let out, teeth gritted at the mere thought of the men's words.

"How do they _talk_ about me, Justin?" Alex asked a stubborn hand on her hip and a questioning arched eyebrow on her face, still frazzled by his previous rampage. Justin fell silent and Alex sighed after a few silent seconds. "What do they say?" she attempted in a gentler tone.

"Stuff" Justin muttered. He wasn't about to repeat their words, mostly because he was slightly embarrassed by how angry they had made him, more angry than they should've made him. That's what happened when anger mingled with other passionate emotions.

"And when they look at you the way they do…" he growled, remembering the hungry and lustful way Smitty had stared at Alex.

"Oh; it's like _that_." The beautiful brunette nodded in realization, understanding finally dawning on her as she sat down once more, legs tucked beneath her as she looked down at her brother.

"Yeah. Like _that_." Justin sighed biting down on his lip in still obvious anger.

"You're too over-protective Justin. I can handle myself in those kinds of situations." Alex told him, slightly amused and a little touched that Justin had been so angry because of comments other men had made about _her_. "You've got to learn to control that temper of yours." She added in an admonishing tone. Justin didn't need to be wrecking locker rooms whether it was about her or not. At least he hadn't started a fight though…

"Whatever Alex. I don't like it." Justin told her, looking at her with serious eyes. "And I don't want them around you cat calling, calling you _baby doll_, and acting like a bunch of sex-deprived lunatics." He rambled, gray eyes shining passionately.

Alex eyed her brother affectionately. Sometimes he was just too predictable; she loved it.

"Oh you." she breathed lovingly, a knowing tone in her voice as she elevated herself until she was up on her knees. She ran her hands up Justin's neck and into his hair. "You're too possessive for your own good, you know that." She spoke softly, running her fingers through his soft hair.

"Well you're _my_ sister." He grumbled defiantly, wrapping his arms around her waist in a possessive manner and burying his face into the area below her collar bone.

"And you're my attention seeking – no, attention _demanding_ brother." She smiled, sighing as she felt Justin softly move his fingers up and down her sides.

"Was that a driver's license I saw you holding earlier?" he mumbled into Alex's warm skin, vibrations tickling the brown-eyed girl.

She giggled at the feeling and the playful and proud tone of her brother's voice.

"It most certainly was." She grinned and Justin moved his head so that he was now looking up at her, arms wrapped around her all the while.

"I knew you'd get it." He grinned at the happy smile on his sister's face. "It's a real shame for those other licensed drivers though. They'll have to be way more alert with you out on the road." The dark haired man rambled.

"Ha Ha" Alex laughed dryly, "Well with that kind of attitude you can just find a new sister to be over-protective of." She informed, moving to break free of Justin's hold.

"I'm kidding!" he chuckled, wrapping his arms tighter around the half Mexican, half Italian princess. "I'm gonna take you somewhere to celebrate!...Out to eat…any place, you pick." He told her just as someone abruptly entered the locker room. It was Smitty.

"Hey Jr. your crew is here." He told Justin, taking note of his and Alex's close vicinity and seething inside at the sight.

"Fuck off" Justin said to the man, who was the last person he had wanted to see.

Smitty visibly scowled/sneered before exiting the locker room.

Justin turned to Alex, an apologetic smile on his face.

"I've got to go…business." He informed her, standing up from the bench. "Rain check?" he questioned.

"Yeah yeah" Alex drawled, as they both exited the locker room.

Justin couldn't help but smile at the typical "Alex" respond. He sighed before reaching out and rubbing up and down Alex's arms attempting to warm her from the cold air conditioning inside the building.

"I don't want you hanging around these guys." He told her, hands stilling on her arms for a brief moment before they retreated back to his sides.

"As if I would ever come here if you or dad wasn't here!" Alex scoffed, smiling teasingly up at her older brother.

"Just making sure." He informed before reaching into his back pocket. "Here." He said, retrieving several hundred dollar bills from his wallet and handing them to his sister. "Go shopping with Harper and by yourself something nice." He told her, folding the money up and placing it into her hands.

"Justin, no. It's too much." She told him, like she always did when he gave her money.

"Take it. I'm proud of you." He told her, pulling her into a hug. They both embraced, enjoying the feel of the other's arms around them. Justin gently brought his lips down to Alex's head and affectionately kissed the top of it.

"Thanks" Alex whispered, finally breaking away from the hug. Justin smiled in return before moving his head to the side in a meaningful gesture.

"Get" he told her, eyes twinkling playfully as he smiled down at his beautiful sister.

"Be careful." She told him, a small concerned smile on her face as she turned and finally exited the building.

**Author's note:**** Well that's it for chapter one. There will definitely be more chapters if you all enjoyed this one. I am honestly on the fence about how you guys will react to it. I hope it doesn't end up on my wall of shame. Anyways, there are lots of mysteries to be solved, lots of minimal information to be elaborated on and trust me the light will be shed on these things. Right now you have a little feel of the characters, that indeed APPEAR to be slightly different from their original counterparts but trust me, I love their characters and intend on keeping them true, just wait! Please review and let me know what you though! Sorry for any mistakes (I REALLY wanted to get it up for you guys!) God bless!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note:**** Wow. I am just truly amazed by you all and very pleasantly surprised. You guys are amazing, absolutely amazing! I'm so happy that you like this story! I was afraid that you wouldn't be too into the plot but based on the reviews, I guess you are! Thank you so much for the many reviews and story alerts and just for reading and giving my story a chance! I hope that I will not disappoint! Also, sorry for the delay! I had a lot to do and college is kicking my butt! I really wanted to get this up for you guys though and I hope it turned out alright! So without further ado, here's Chapter 2; enjoy!**

**Mafia Princess**

**Chapter 2**

"Dude we heard about what happened!"

Justin was just about to step through the double doors, that led to the gym, when they burst open and he was nearly bombarded as he was met with the earnest exclamation of Tristan Morris, a member of his "crew," the guys that he worked with. The tall, 18 year old, brown skinned, African American looked eager to say more but was quickly interrupted as the other men began to speak.

"My cuz can't even go a _week_ without fighting." Vince, Justin's half Italian, half Spanish cousin spoke, grinning from ear to ear with, oddly enough, a look of pride on his face that seemed extremely out of place amongst the other different facial expressions.

Justin heard the double doors slam loudly behind the guys, closing them all into the hallway, as another voice rang out.

"The whole place is buzzin about it." Anthony Jimmy Parker, also known as A.J, also known as Jimmy, spoke up, a look of badly disguised nervousness and concern in his blue eyes.

"I swear these folks gossip like a bunch of girls." Justin muttered, annoyed as he looked around at his crew of criminals, all of whom he had come to call his friend: Tristan, whom was running a hand through his short but naturally baby curled, black hair, a look of calm curiosity on his face; Vince, whom had come to stand next to Justin and was now patting his back proudly, a huge grin on his face, Jimmy, the shortest and youngest member of the group, and the one Justin had know longest whom was, at the moment, looking even more anxious than usual, and Knox, the oldest member of the group whom had been in the business the longest, didn't talk much, and at the moment wore an impassive expression.

"So what _really_ happened? Can't believe a thing that comes out of these shit head's mouths..." Vince spoke, a look of intense interest on his face as he wrapped an arm around his, slightly taller, cousin's shoulder and leaned in to get the scoop.

Justin told his friends about the earlier "bull shit" as he called it. While explaining everything, he also informed the guys of his conversation with his father.

"Damn 'J;' you know you've really got to stop this, man." Tristan was the first to speak after Justin's story, (not including a surprised Jimmy whom had spoken out in the middle of Justin's story, in indication to Justin's bruised up hands) a serious look on his face that matched his reprimanding tone. "The guys are startin' to call you "Young Turk:" _Young defiant Mafia member_!" he continued, voice rising an octave at this declaration.

"I know what it means." Justin grumbled, irritable after telling and re-living his almost fight. "I don't give a _damn_ what those bastards think." He spoke louder, as if announcing this bit of information to _all_ of his friends and any one who might've been listening in for that matter.

"Yeah. We can tell. Fully noted, alright?" Tristan countered. Of all the boys, excluding Jimmy, he was the closest to Justin and the one he confided in the most. "But you're old man is cool. I mean sure he's mean, tough, and just as hard as the next boss, but I don't know…he's nice." He finished, a sheepish look on his face at his contradictory adjectives and lack of finding a better term to describe Jerry Russo with.

"Just don't let _him_ hear you say that." Vince muttered/scoffed, a smirk on his face as he casually ran a hand through his neck-length brown hair.

"Yeah. My point _is_," Tristan brushed off Vince's warning with an eye roll as he continued his declaration. "He's an alright guy and you're making him look bad. This _acting out_ is taking away from you pop's credibility…making him look bad." He finished, a reproachful look on his face.

"Well, as I told you in my _story_," Justin drawled out. "It looks like I'm going to have to stop any ways." he spoke lazily as if unaffected by his friends words, when in actuality they had sunken into his head, most like all of the man's wise advice did. "I'm being _forced_ to. So there's no need for an…intervention or whatnot. There will be no more fighting, okay?" Justin informed, glancing around at all of his friends for confirmation that they'd understood him.

"Good to hear it."

"Thank God."

"This fuckin sucks."

Silence…

Were the replies he was met with.

Justin sighed, but couldn't help the small amused smile that broke out onto his face at his friend's typical replies. He reached into his back pocket pulling out his wallet and a rubber band. He proceeded to retract the many bills inside of the wallet and roll them into a bundle.

"Um what's up with the wallet?" Vince asked, eyeing the aforementioned object with an arched eyebrow.

"Sometimes I like to use it for show, you know?...For Alex." He mumbled, slightly embarrassed, though he didn't show it, nor would he ever show such a sign of weakness to his crew. "No need to constantly remind her that her whole family is full of criminals." He explained/muttered, wrapping the rubber band around the large bundle of bills and putting it away.

"Some of the things you do for that girl…" Vince spoke again, looking at Justin and shaking his head with a look of bemused wonder and lack of understanding on his face.

"Yeah yeah. It's real _heart warming_ and all." He brushed off before pushing through the guys and walking over to the side door, the same door Alex had exited through minutes ago. "C'mon guys; pick up time." He announced, a pointed and serious look on his face. "We're takin my car." He informed, before shoving out of the door and into the hot Miami air that was way to hot for an early October day.

The other guys followed. Justin's black (rental) H2 Hummer was parked right outside of the gym. Justin pressed in the code for the car and unlocked the other doors.

As the guys got into his car, he retrieved his black shoulder double gun holster from its spot on his front seat and strapped it on. He pulled out the gun on his left and the one on his right and checked to make sure they were both loaded before placing them back into their holsters.

He moved the piece he had, tucked in the back of his pants, (which he always kept on him) into the ankle holster he was wearing. He then slightly covered the tucked in, dark red body shirt he was wearing with a black business suite jacket that had been draped over the back of his seat. He buttoned it up half way before looking over his crew.

Vince was wearing a typical black and white monkey suit and a matching fedora, much like he always wore when doing business; Knox was wearing a black business suit, a yellow tie on top of his white dress shirt and a matching black (with yellow ribbon around the middle) fedora; Tristan was sporting a white business suit with a black dress shirt and had opted to go without a tie; and last but not least, Jimmy was sporting a baby blue/gray tinged tuxedo with a white dress shirt and baby blue tie.

They looked good, but more importantly, they looked ready to work.

"Everybody armed?" Justin questioned.

In reply, jackets were opened and in some cases, guns waved victoriously in the air.

"Alright" Justin said, satisfied with his answer as he quickly got into the car, slammed the door and started and revved the engine. "Let's ride." He announced before pulling off.

The sounds of DMX's "Party Up (Up in here)" quickly filled the car and loudly banged through the built in speakers as Justin sang along.

"Ya'll gon make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here! Ya'll gon make me go all out, up in here, up in here!" he would never get tired of that song; there was just something about it that got him ready to go out and do some business.

"Uh uhn." Tristan's voice was heard over the music as he spoke loudly. "See? This is half the reason you're always flying off the handle as it is, J.R. This music just _makes_ you want to start a fight!" he exclaimed, using the nickname almost everyone knew Justin by, JR, _**J**_ustin _**R**_usso.

"Here. Put this in." the African American spoke, handing a CD up to Jimmy whom was sitting in his usual seat up front because, although often a nervous wreck and "scaredy cat," Anthony Jimmy Parker could drive like no other and would be very useful up front, should they need a quick get away.

Jimmy merely looked over the _blank_ CD before shrugging, extracting the DMX CD and replacing it with the new, mystery CD.

Justin frowned as his song was cut off and his frown soon deepened with huge distaste as the classical sounds of _Eine Kleine Nachtmusic_, by Mozart, filled the car.

There was a round of groans throughout the car, even Knox was groaning and rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"What the hell is this?" Vince griped, a look of utter disgust on his face.

"This is that stuff people play at funerals." Jimmy echoed, covering up his ears in attempt to drown out the noise.

Tristan merely smiled, moving his two pointer fingers in a conducting manner and closing his eyes, blocking out his friend's less than cheerful replies, as he listened to the music.

"You took out my DMX for _this_?" Justin asked, indignantly, eyeing his friend through the rearview. He shook his head at the music entranced man. _Right when you thought you knew a person…_

"Just give it a chance, boys." Tristan spoke again, eyes still closed and fingers still moving. "It'll calm you hot heads down."

It didn't calm them down. In fact it had the opposite effect and by the time the guys had finally reached the distant docks, they _wanted_ – no _needed_ to hit something – anything; the urge to bang their heads against a wall had never been stronger.

Jimmy, Knox, and Vince immediately jumped out of the car as soon as they arrived at the docks, not even allowing the car to come to a complete stop. Justin also wasted no time in turning off his car and was also out and slamming the door super quick. Tristan was the last one who emerged, a content smile on his face.

"See guys? Now don't you feel calmed and focused?"

He received four hard glares in response before his friends all turned and stalked off towards the small abandoned boat house that was located on the wooden docks.

"Guess not." The curly haired man muttered to himself before following the others.

The five men approached the boat house, each mind focused on a different thing but they all seemed to agree on one thing, they hoped that the drop would happen soon. None of the guys desired to be here longer than they had to.

When they were about 8 steps away from the building, it became apparent that they were not alone at these docks as 3 men stepped out of the small shack-like structure.

These guys were not strangers. Though Justin was not well acquainted with them, he had seen them around and recognized them to be members of the Sinatra family, one of the other known families/organizations in Florida.

The three stood across the dock, arms crossed and sneers on their faces as they stood, seemingly blocking the dock house and Justin couldn't help but thinking, _so much for a quick and easy pick up…_

Justin looked around at his friends, an annoyed and pointed look on his face at the sight of the unwelcomed company. He led his group a couple of paces closer to the boat house and the other three, before stopping.

"Well well well. If it isn't Russo's workers." One of the men, whom Justin knew to be a Captain in the Sinatra family, spoke up. "Or is it the other Russo's workers?" he's mused. "All I know is that there's too many damn Russo's in Florida right now, fuckin up our sunshine state." She rambled on.

Justin, whom was already worked up, annoyed, pissed (thanks to the orchestra music) and in no mood to deal with bull shit, immediately stepped forward, glaring at the group of three, a dangerous look on his face.

"Cosa Nostra." He snarled, using the Italian term for "this thing is ours."

"Oh really? This thing is yours, huh?" the captain spoke up again, motioning to the area around them as he spoke. "Well, we happen to do business a lot here as well. Who's to say it isn't _ours_." He asked, a challenging look on his face as he glanced over at his other two cronies and chuckled slightly at his words.

"Looks like somebody here is on stupid pills." Justin bit out, eyes zeroing in on the captain as he eyed him unyieldingly. "Next time, you might want to listen closer when your boss tells you what days to come here." He spoke, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly as he did so.

"Whoa. Stupid pills? I find that pretty insulting, don't you guys?" the guy spoke, eyes narrowing slightly as he stared at Justin, who's insult had clearly left the captain in a less calmer mood than he'd been in a moment ago. "And who might _you_ be, young blood?" the man questioned, menacingly eyeing Justin.

"That's Kelbo's nephew." The older looking guy on the captain's left spoke. "_Heard_ you had a mouth on you…" he continued, shaking his head and tsking. "We could use somebody like him in the Sinatra family, eh guys?" The old man chuckled slightly, taking part in some kind of inside joke he had with the other two men.

"I wouldn't join your sorry excuse of a family if you were the last ones on earth." Justin bit out through gritted teeth.

"Trust me, the invitation was not authentic bitch." The captain quickly spat and both Tristan and Knox each put a calming and restraining hand on either one of Justin's shoulders, knowing that being called the b-word was just as equal to punching him in the nose and would just as surely cause retaliation. "But seeing as you've been sending your own member's to the hospital; it's like you're already on our side." The captain finished, grinning from ear to ear.

"Go fuck yourself Charles." Vince spoke up, coming to stand in front of Justin, a look of barely controlled fury on his face.

"What?...Well bless my soul if it isn't Kelbo's _kid_. Been a while since we've seen you around Russo." The captain, who's name must've been Charles, spoke, a small smile playing on his face as he walked a couple of steps closer until he was all but 3 paces in front of Vince.

"Same with you, Charles, although not nearly as long as I would've liked…" Vince spat, and Justin wondered how his cousin knew the other man.

"Uh oh boss. Looks like little Vincent grew up." The guy on Charles's right finally spoke up, a taunting glint in his eyes as he eyed Vince.

"Nah. He's still the same old Vince, all talk and no walk." The Captain carelessly brushed off, sneering darkly at Vince. "I forgot though." He spoke again, this time directing his words to Vince. "Your mouth is almost as wild and bad as your cousin's." he said.

"At least you know how to shut up though. Or at least you _knew_." The man on the captain's right put in once more. "Maybe you need to be taught again."

"Do you fucks really want to get iced today that badly?" Justin finally spoke up, shoving off his two friends as he moved to stand beside his cousin, fed up with the way they were talking to him. This was Vincent Russo for heaven's sake, son of Kelbo Russo, nephew of Jerry Russo!

"Hey hey hey. No one's getting killed today." The man on Charles's left spoke again. He seemed to be the only one with half a brain out of the three.

"Yeah" the captain added calmly. "Not today at least…We simply came to say _bye_." He informed, voice taking on a lighter tone. "We heard you were leaving soon and wanted to say _Fanabala_ motherfuckers and don't ever show up here again!" he spat, using the Italian term for "go to hell" and literally spitting at Justin and Vince's feet.

"Oh really?!" Justin bit out, moving to get to the other man. Vince also made to move but the both of them were immediately held back by their friends, Jimmy and Tristan holding Justin and "built like a wrestler" Knox single handedly holding a livid Vince.

"Calm down J!" Tristan yelled out, struggling to hold on to the thrashing teen.

"Yeah. You best hold him back." Charles sneered, laughing at the sight of the struggling men before him.

"If you didn't notice; there's _five_ of us and only _three_ of you." Jimmy yelled out in anger, holding on tightly to an angry Justin who would not stop moving.

"Aw cute. A mascot." The captain smiled, sharing a long laugh at the sight of Jimmy whom was way too short for his age and barely reached Justin's shoulder.

"What a fuckin joke." The man spoke, looking around at the group of five before snapping his fingers and walking past the group of men, two cronies in his wake.

"Fuckin fanook!" Justin shouted angrily after them. "Charles you're a fuckin fanook!" he yelled after them. Then finally when the three had gotten into their limo and had been carted off, Justin and Vincent were released.

"Damn it!" Vince exclaimed, watching the car speed away. "What I would've given just to hit that guy _one_ good time!" he vented, punching at the air in anger.

Knox quietly reached out, grabbed and stilled one of Vince's punches. The furious teen glared at the other man whom merely stared back, a small disapproving frown in place.

"Calm down. We've got work to do." He instructed before dropping the fist. Vince shoved him off (although it was pointless since he'd already been released) before following the other men, whom had already started moving, into the boat house.

"How the heck do you know that guy anyways?" Justin asked, sitting heavily into the old lazy boy in the room.

"Went to Elementary school with them." Vincent explained through clenched teeth, still obviously very angry. "Bunch of fucked up bullies and criminals back then too." He informed. "They picked on me because of who my dad was, the arch rival of the Sinatra's. I was too young and small to actually defend myself or to really know what was going on, but that didn't stop me from running my mouth." He continued. "Sure would've felt good to finally give them a taste of their own medicine though." The 19 year old seethed, fist clenched in frustration.

"Hey. Your dad's thriving business is now a raging empire so who's small and defenseless now?" Justin spoke, and all of the guys vocalized their agreements and that was the end of that discussion. As frustrated as the situation had been, Justin knew that there were bigger fish to fry. The Sinatra's were has beens whom had been on the top a long time ago and were now just taking up space. They weren't important.

The docks were much calmer after their one incident. An hour of waiting went by. It was pretty uneventful, the conversed, listened to ipods and mp3s and just passed the time. When the two hour mark rolled around, Alex called.

"Alex how many times do I have to tell you not to call me while I'm working?!" Justin drawled out, slightly annoyed by Alex whom insisted on calling him almost _every time_ he was working.

"Justin, I figured out where I want to go when you take me out for dinner!" the 16 year old exclaimed, ignoring her brother's words.

"And this couldn't have waited?"

"Obviously no."

"Alex I've got work to do."

"It's this little café that just opened, in down town Manhattan, called _Shay's. _Harper was just telling me about it!They're supposed to have great food! Plus the restaurant is super cozy and romantic."

"Yeah alright Alex; I'll take you to…"

"Shays, Justin! Shays."

"Shays, Alex; I'll take you to Shays."

"Good."

"See you later." Justin spoke into the phone before pressing the red phone button and proceeding to look at the small device, a look of utter bewilderment on his face at the thought of the person he'd just finished talking with.

"Girls" Jimmy said, vocalizing Justin's very thought, as he shook his head in defeated confusion.

"Their freakin mysterys." Knox spoke up, a spaced out look on his face.

"More like maniacs!" Vince broke in, and this brought about the whole conversation on women. "My girl's trying to get me to leave the business. What kind of bullshit is that?!" the 19 year old Latino exclaimed. This brought on a whole new conversation. Girls. It went a little something like this:

**Jimmy:** Well she probably get's tired of worrying about you all the time. (Always the empathetic)

**Vince:** And? She knows I'm a Cugine. I'm actually trying to move _up in rank! _(Always the pure…man)

**Tristan: **Yeah, well sometimes it's not all about me, me, me. Sometime's it's about the girl. (Always the wise)

**Vince:** Yeah? Save it for someone who cares.

**Jimmy:** How he keeps a girlfriend, I'll never know...

**Tristan:** Point is, don't get mad at Jessica. (Vince's girlfriend of 4 months) She's worried, so she asked you to get out of the business. I'm sure it's something every girlfriend does! Heck I'm sure JR's mom has asked Mr. Russo about it before."

**Jimmy:** Mrs. Russo?!

**Knox:** Good looking woman… (Always the…I don't know…)

**Vince:** Aunt Theresa?! Hell no! She's one of those good "ride or die" chicks. She's been with Uncle Jerry through thick and thin; even when he was pinched and in the pin; she stayed by his side, which is more than I can say for my sorry excuse of a mother…

**Knox:** She's damn good looking…

(Recieves curious looks from all four guys.)

**Knox:** What? I's got eyes ain't I?

The conversation had continued like that for a while before moving to the topic of Jimmy's current girlfriend, Justin's exes, and the girl Tristan was working on breaking up with. Finally about 30 minutes later, in the midst of trying to pry some information about Knox's current squeeze, from the 25 year old, the shipment had arrived.

What a day this had been.

**Author's note: ****Sorry about the lack of Jalex! I actually had made this chapter extremely long and at last minute had decided to shorten it and update quicker because the length was just RIDICULOUS!! Anyways, I hope you didn't hate this. It was kind of necessary to introduce Justin's crew and other things…The next chapter will be filled with Jalex, I promise! Here's a bit of insight into this chapter. I envisioned certain actors as Justin's friends; let me know what you think! As Tristan, I envisioned **_**Christopher Warren Jr.**_** who plays Zeke in the **_**"High School Musical"**_** series. Have you seen him in the 3****rd**** one? Just hot! As Vince, I envisioned **_**Ben Barnes**_** who is famous for his role of Prince Caspian in **_**The Chronicles of Narnia 2: Prince Caspian.**_** Also very hot! For the role of Jimmy, I envisioned **_**Luke Benward,**_** the short adorable kid in Disney's **_**Minute Men**_**. For Knox I couldn't picture anyone in particular. He has the façade of the dude who played the Juggernaut in **_**X3**_** and also was in **_**Gone in Sixty Seconds**_** and **_**She's The Man**_**, as the soccer coach. The kind of vibe that guy gives off! Anyways, thank you all sooo much for reading this and giving it a chance! And Thank you SOOOOO much for the reviews from the last chapter, had me walking around like some happy, over giddy maniac; do it again please! I will update soon hopefully! Thanks! Oh and if you're bored and want to read a Jalex, check out "Lust" by "PrettyGirlRocks," pretty darn good Jalex! So long for now! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note:**** You guys are probably wondering why this took so long, well I decided to rewrite it. I kept a lot of stuff but also added a lot and took a lot away. I hope you all like it. I really did work really hard on it. Thank you to all of my readers and all of my faithful reviewers! I really appreciate you all!!! Now without further ado, get ready for a long chapter! Get some popcorn and get comfortable!**

**Chapter 3**

Later that night, Justin finally pulled into the driveway of the penthouse his family owned, after catching a bite to eat with his friends, and then dropping them back at the base where their cars were.

He was tired and happy to be home. He ran a hand through his short hair before unbuckling his seatbelt (his mother had him in the habit of wearing) and opening the car door. He left the door opened as he traveled to the trunk of the huge SUV. He retrieved the duffle bag full of merchandise, closed the trunk, and traveled back to his open car door. He took of his suit jacket and firearms and placed them where they had been that morning, and then finally he closed the door and began walking towards the front door of the large penthouse.

He opened the door, using the keys he'd already had out, and entered the house. He immediately noticed his mother and father, sitting at the dining room that surpassed the large living room of the house.

"Justin! Finally you're home!" his mother exclaimed happily. His father looked up and smiled as well. "Dinner's in the kitchen; I made lasagna!" Theresa Russo practically chirped.

Justin eyed the woman, whom was sitting on his father's lap, by the looks of it, feeding him apple pie and drinking white wine. Those two really did exercise PDA a little too much…

"Thanks mom," Justin replied. "But I already ate with the guys." He explained an apologetic look on his face. He knew how much his mother enjoyed cooking for her family.

"Justin" the Mexican woman admonished.

"I know mom. I'm sorry." Justin apologized. "But I'm a growing man, I eat, and eat, and eat." He smiled at his mother. "I'll be down later for some of your famous lasagna." He assured the brown haired woman.

"Okay." His words seemed to satisfy his mother, whom went back to feeding his father the delicious looking apple pie.

Jerry closed his eyes before saying, "Mmm. Each bite gets better and better." He smiled up at his wife whom wiped a couple of crumbs away from his mouth.

"It'd be even better if you managed to keep it all in your mouth." She teased and Jerry merely looked up at her and smiled, a happy look in his eyes, love.

"Ahem." Justin cleared his throat, hating to interrupt his parent's moment, but there was business that had to be taken care of.

His parents both looked over at him in question and Justin apologetically held up the duffle bag in his hand.

A look of realization crossed his father's face and Jerry cleared his throat as well.

"Right" he said a gruff voice. "I'd almost forgotten." He spoke before softly patting Theresa's upper thigh. She rose from his lap but her hands soon found their way to her hips as she stared at her husband admonishing.

"Handle your business Jerry but remember, you promised to watch "Wuthering Heights" with me." She reminded, a stern look on his face.

Jerry scrunched his nose up in a look of slight disgust at the thought of the romance movie but he still smiled non the less, though it came out looking more like a grimace.

"I remember." He told her before reaching out, grasping her chin softly and bringing her to him for a soft chaste kiss. "Go ahead and get it ready; I won't be long." Jerry told his wife, voice low and husky.

"Really gotta tone down on the PDA." Justin muttered to himself, looking away from the sight of his parents, a look of disgust on his face.

"What Justin?" his father questioned, breaking away from his mother.

"Nothing" Justin muttered before grabbing Jerry's arm and moving him away from his wife and over towards his at home office, which was located to the right of the front door, across the living room.

After a few steps in the right direction, Justin dropped his father's arm but continued towards the office his father used. His father was staring at him with an amused and knowing smirk on his face, which made Justin think that Jerry knew exactly what he had said moments ago. Justin rolled his eyes at this realization before stepping into his father's office, after his father.

"Alright; let's see the merch." Jerry spoke, and Justin in turn placed the duffle bag onto the mahogany desk and unzipped it, watching his father as he peered at its contents.

Jerry counted and inspected the powdery drug inside of the yellow duffle.

"Looks like every thing's here." He spoke, more to himself than to Justin. "A little farewell gift for Kelbo." Jerry explained, looking up at his son.

Justin nodded silently before re-zipping the bag.

He looked up to find his father's eyes trained on him, watching him. Justin could tell that the other man wanted to tell him something, and the look he was giving him was rather unnerving, but Justin was silent and waited patiently for his dad to speak.

"I'm sorry about earlier, son." Jerry finally spoke up, eyes sincere as he looked at his son. "I didn't mean to be so harsh; things are really starting to get out of hand though, you have to understand that." The Italian continued a solemn look on his face.

Justin's heart warmed. This was his father. This was the father he knew. You must understand now that Jerry Russo had two roles in Justin's life: his boss and his father, mafia boss and family man. Both were good men, but Justin was always happy to spend time and talk to his father, just his father.

At his father's words, Tristan's words from earlier flooded his mind and settled there, like they often did. He had been right. Justin was wrong; his father had no reason to apologize for his actions.

"Dad it's fine." Justin spoke up, eyes moving from the ground, up to his dad. "You're right. The fighting is getting out of hand. I am gonna stop." He told the other man, nodding his head for emphasis.

Jerry's chest swelled with pride at his son's words. He was finally taking responsibility for his actions and not lashing out. Jerry had never been more proud.

"You know son, one day this'll all be yours." The Italian spoke, placing an arm around Justin's shoulder as the two walked towards the door of the office.

Justin couldn't help the wide smile that spread on his face. His father had never said these words to him before.

"What Kelbo and I built up, his Miami empire, and my New York empire that have merged to become the strongest Mafia family on the East Coast." Jerry continued, smiling proudly at the thought of all he and his brother had done. "It'll all be yours and Vince's, that is if you want it." He added.

"Are you kidding? Of course." Justin said, stopping in his tracks and smiling happily at his father, a shocked look on his face.

"It won't be any time soon now!" Jerry chuckled at his son's happy reaction, removing his arm from his shoulder and stopping as well. "I don't plan on retiring till a long time, but someday…this will all be yours." He smiled.

"And I won't let you down dad. I promise." Justin spoke, feeling the need to reassure his dad of his decision.

"I know you won't Justin." Jerry told the young man before continuing to the office door. "I'm proud of you son. You're doing great things for the family, making us a lot of money, not to mention you've been keeping that brother of yours out of trouble." He spoke.

"Where is the little trouble maker, by the way?" Justin wondered aloud, thinking of his brother who was adamant about joining the family business and was constantly getting into trouble as he came up with new ways to prove that he was a worthy candidate for membership.

"Spending the night at one of his new friend's house." Jerry informed, rolling his eyes as he said so.

"On our last night in Florida?" Justin questioned incredulously.

"You're mom's decision." Jerry explained.

"That you agreed to." Justin added knowingly as the two exited the office.

"Hey! You get married to a beautiful woman and then tell me how easy it is for _you_ to say 'no' to her!" Jerry argued.

Justin only shook his head, an amused expression on his face as he walked over to the stairs that were directly next to the office, his father heading towards the kitchen where Justin heard his mother moving around.

"I'll never be that whipped." the 17 year old informed, before taking the steps two at a time.

"Oh we'll see about that." He heard his father scoff incredulously as he continued up the steps.

His father really was pitiful sometimes. _Pussy whipped for sure._ Justin thought to himself. _That'll never be me. No one will ever have that kind of control over me..._

Justin was in a particularly good mood now. The conversation he'd had with his father about the business, had him on cloud nine. His sleepy state was now gone and he was wide awake and feeling restless.

On his way to his room, he paused in front of Alex's slightly closed door.

He was bored. There was nothing to do in his room really, except pack for their early flight the next morning…_annoy Alex it is._ Justin thought to himself before opening and entering his sister's room.

He closed the door behind him before walking over to and sitting down at the desk, across from Alex's bed.

"You should really get a desk in your bedroom at home, maybe then you'll actually be inspired to do some work." Justin announced before leaning back in the computer chair, placing his hands behind his head and getting comfortable.

He looked over at Alex whom was lying in the middle of her bed, head resting against her headboard, white dress abandoned for a red tank and short black shorts. She had barely spared him a glance upon his entrance into her room and was flipping nonchalantly through a magazine, headphones in her ear, music so loud that Justin could easily hear every lyric, even from his spot across the room.

Slowly Alex brought her eyes away from what she called "literature" and carelessly settled them onto her brother, whom was staring at her from where he sat, moving side to side in her computer chair.

The brunette teen slowly removed the earphones out of her ear, which Justin could still clearly hear Adele's "Chasing Pavements" blaring out of, and sent a pointed look her brother's way.

"Oh _hey_ Alex. How was your day? Mine? Fine. May I come into your room?" she rattled off, voice dripping with sarcasm as she lazily eyed her brother, thinking with disdain and a slight disturbance about how their roles had changed since Justin had joined the Mafia. _He_ was now barging into _her_ room unannounced…not that she _hadn't_ stopped barging into his room, but he wasn't supposed to barge into _hers_! It was like they were in some kind of bizarre alternate universe.

"The door was opened." Justin shrugged, uncommitted.

"Um…_knock_. Knock maybe? Is it that hard?" Alex asked, sitting up straighter in her bed, disbelief on her face at her brother's careless response; he was developing more of her characteristics by the day; she wasn't sure she liked it.

"You of all people should know the answer to that question." Justin deadpanned.

He couldn't help but smile, eyes sparkling mischievously at his witty comeback. _Take that, girl who acts like she'd rather be ran over by a Mack truck than, heaven forbid, have to knock on __**my**__ door! _

Alex glared at her brother, annoyed by the fact that he'd come up with a good comeback, something that was getting more common for him, much to Alex's dismay, but this also made their arguments more interesting and stimulating.

"I never knock on your door!" she argued. "You know that?! It's a known cycle. But what you're doing is just wrong!" she spat, and Justin sat up straighter in his seat.

"Oh, and nothing's wrong with barging into _my_ room unannounced? I could be naked." He returned, at which Alex scoffed.

"You wish I would walk in on you naked." She spoke, rolling her eyes. "Sorry to disappoint though, nobody wants to see your small package."

"Don't talk about what you've never seen." Justin warned and the smirk on his face made Alex decisively steer their conversation away from the path it was going down.

"Just knock next time, okay doofus?" she told him, scrunching her face slightly and smiling sarcastically at him.

"Maybe" Justin shrugged, "We'll see."

Alex scowled and Justin loved it. For some reason, he found angry/annoyed Alex (especially one whom he'd caused to feel those emotions) very pleasing and entertaining.

"What the heck happened to my respectful and responsible brother?!" the brunette asked the heavens, looking up at the ceiling of her room, a questioning look on her face as she truly wondered who this maddening man in front of her was.

"You need to start packing for our flight in the morning." Justin suddenly informed. "There. See? _Responsible_." He said.

Alex rolled her eyes in response.

"I'll just pack last minute like I always do." She explained, as if it were the most obvious thing.

"For once it would be nice to see you do better packing than just tossing every thing into your suit case and then forcing it closed by getting Max to sit on top of it.

"No matter how tough and bad you are, you will always be the same Justin." Alex spoke. Why her words made her smile, she didn't quite know. Perhaps she was happy that her brother would always be the geek she'd always known him to be, though admittedly a tough, and manly geek.

"Just go ahead and pack, will ya?" Justin ignored his sister's comment and massaged the back of his neck, which had been bothering him ever since his almost fight with Smitty.

Alex eyed her brother. He was never one to ignore an insult, especially one from her.

She dropped her magazine and emerged from her bed, making her way over to her brother, a slightly concerned, slightly amused look on her face. Justin watched her.

"What's wrong baby?" she purred softly.

"Alex." Justin admonished. He hated it when she called him pet names such as this, it was a way she teased him, and that's exactly what it was to Justin: a tease.

"Sorry" Alex mumbled before coming to stand in front of her brother and looking down at him. "Long day?" she asked.

"You have no idea." Justin mumbled, looking around his sister's room as he thought about the talk with his father at the base, back to his almost fight with Smitty, and to his run in with the Sinatra family cronies at the docks.

Alex leaned into Justin's back and gently rested her hands on his shoulders. Justin jumped slightly, having not noticed Alex moving to the back of his chair; he soon relaxed under her touch though.

She rubbed his shoulders slightly.

"Damn, Justin you're so tense." She spoke softly.

Justin closed his eyes at the feather light voice.

"I told you, long day." He mumbled but soon quieted as he felt his sister rub his shoulders once more. She began to massage them.

"Mmm, thanks. That feels great." Justin mumbled at the contact, enjoying the way her touch warmed his skin with its firm, yet delicate pressure.

Alex didn't say any thing; she merely continued to massage his tense shoulders, relaxing him with each movement.

After a few more quiet moments, Justin spoke again.

"Can't believe tonight is our last night in Florida." He spoke, voice quiet for reasons unknown to him.

"Yeah. Me neither." Alex sighed in agreement, hands still moving over Justin's shoulders. "I wasn't expecting the Botticelli case to calm down so quickly." She said, bringing up the very reason for their escape/vacation to Florida.

"I don't think any body was." Justin mumbled, feeling his skin grow hotter as Alex moved from his shoulders up to his neck. She merely caressed the back of his neck softly for a few seconds before pressing her fingers deeper and massaging the area.

"Damn, Alex that feels so good, you have no idea." Justin groaned out, literally feeling his tenseness and stresses of the day slipping away.

"I have skills." He heard his sister whisper.

"Yeah" Justin answered before thinking. "I mean…" he sputtered and Alex laughed her infamous throaty laugh.

"My gosh, Justin Russo I believe I am having quite the effect on you." She spoke, bending down, wrapping her arms around his neck and moving until her head was slightly touching his cheek as she glanced sideways at him, a knowing smile on her face.

"In your dreams." Justin muttered, glancing quickly at her before fixing his eyes on the wall ahead.

"Hmph" Alex let out a slightly amused sound before moving back into a straight upright position and continuing her massage.

"I think I'm actually going to miss Miami." The brunette sighed, fingers moving on Justin's neck.

"Yeah it has that effect on you." Justin replied, matter-of-factly. He heard his sister scoff in reply.

"_It has that effect on you_." She mocked, voice taking on a deep, droning tone. "Don't get cocky just because you fly out here all the time for "business.""

Justin couldn't help but smile at the typical Alex response.

"Someone's a hater." The 17 year old replied. "And I think we all know who I'm talking about…you." He informed in total Justin fashion.

"Yeah, but my feelings towards you are no mystery." Alex deadpanned, finger's momentarily stilling on Justin's neck; he could practically _see_ her careless shrug.

"Okay, _ruining_ the massage." He announced, trying to block out his sisters words and focus on the blissful feeling her massage was giving him.

"Yeah yeah." Alex droned. "Just don't forget who's giving you the massage." She reminded.

"Thanks Alex." Justin droned in response; he'd do about any thing at that point to keep his sister from stopping her effective actions.

"Those words are not said often enough…" Alex mused aloud to herself as she continued her ministrations.

"You know some more words that are not said often enough?" Justin questioned and could practically see the eye roll his sister was doing at his words.

"What? _Alex you're a genius and I'd be lost without you_?" the brunette ventured.

"Thanks _Justin_." The 17 year old spoke, ignoring his sister's previous comment.

"What would I thank _you_ for?" the Latina/Italian princess questioned, hands stilling once more on Justin's skin.

"Um gee, I don't know. _How about getting Harper down here for you to spend this past weekend with?!_" Justin questioned incredulously.

"That was dad." Alex deadpanned after a couple of moments of silence. "And thank _God_ he did that. I was about bored out of my brains without her." Alex groaned in remembrance of the previous two weeks her family had spent in Miami.

"Gee thanks." Justin spoke, slightly deflated, and sarcastic. "And here _I_ thought I was doing an alright job keeping you occupied." he said, frowning slightly.

"You work all the time Justin." Alex responded, lightly bopping Justin on the head with her right hand and moving to stand in front of him.

"Feel better now?" she questioned, sitting on the edge of her bed and looking Justin over.

"Yeah" he spoke, rolling his shoulders back several times, feeling more relaxed than he had in a while. Alex nodded her head in response before continuing on with their previous conversation as if she had never interrupted it.

"You did your best J, but I needed a friend, a _girl_ friend." She spoke, voice dripping with over exaggerated and sarcastic sympathy as she reached forward and tapped his knee lightly, an empathetic look on her face.

"Well if you didn't have the attention span of a peanut." Justin grumbled, looking across at his sister as she settled back onto her bed, moving to the head board and resting her head on it.

"Not my fault you're boring." The brunette returned, at which Justin huffed indignantly.

"And it's not _my_ fault you're ADHD, mean, conniving, and selfish." He returned and Alex sat up straighter from her spot on her bed.

"Okay first, seriously? What's up with the names? A little immature, don't you think? And second, ADHD? My attention span is just fine, hence me reading through this entire fashion magazine _twice. _I merely tend to zone out on the boring stuff. " She informed.

"Yet you can never tell me even a _single_ word any of your teachers say, and you are constantly not listening to me!" he threw back, but noticed that his sister was not looking at him and was looking down at her French manicured finger nails.

"Alex!" Justin exclaimed in dismay.

"What? I told you I zone out on the boring stuff." She shrugged and Justin merely let out an exasperated sigh.

"And let's see, what else did you call me?" Alex asked, ignoring Justin's frustrated state. "Oh yeah, _mean_." She answered herself before crossing her legs and sitting Indian style on her bed. "If I was so _mean_, would I be one the most popular girls at school?" she asked him. "No one likes a mean girl." She added.

"Yeah, except in the movie "_Mean _girls" when the _most popular girl in school_ was as mean as Satan!" Justin echoed.

"I don't get your point." Alex deadpanned before continuing. "And _conniving_?! I mean really?! Max and I haven't played a trick on you in ages." She informed.

"Yeah. That's because last time I had to go to the _hospital_!"

"They were able to move your hand from your –

"You shouldn't have tricked me into putting my hand in that glue in the first place!" Justin argued.

"Pfft. It's all just fun and games Justin." Alex brushed off before relaxing her head, once more, against her headboard. "Now, lastly, _selfish_? Selfish?" she repeated. "I've never been so hurt in my life." The brunette spoke, lip quivering in dramatic sadness.

"Yeah whatever, you must be destroyed." Justin deadpanned. "There's _nothing_ you can say to defend the fact that you're selfish." He challenged.

"Oh really?" Alex returned, arching an eyebrow.

"Really." Justin told her.

"I guess you won't be wanting that brand new leather jacket I bought for you today then…" she said, gazing off in space before her eyes moved to her brother and she watched for his response.

Justin narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"You did not." He told her.

"Check the bag on my dresser." Alex told him, moving her head to the left carelessly.

Justin's eyes landed on the black store bag with the words "Man Alive" written on it in neat hand writing. He looked back at his sister quizzically and she only shrugged in reply. Finally he emerged from his seat and walked over to the dresser.

He slowly opened the bag and peered inside it. His eyes grew slightly bigger as he eyed the leather material; he wasted no time in retrieving it from its prison of a bag.

He stared in awe at the black leather jacket and its wooly interior.

"Thought you could use something to keep you warm through the New York winter." Alex's voice broke through his thoughts and he looked over at her in shock before feasting his attention once more on the beautiful jacket, their previous argument forgotten.

The jacket had a royal blue hoody looking hood and Justin noticed that the royal blue hoody like material was also in the interior of his jacket poking out beyond the leather, giving the jacket the appearance that their was a hoody inside of it. Justin instantly loved it.

"I know you like leather and hoodys so I found something that had the two combined." Alex spoke and Justin looked up at her, a wide grin on his face.

"Alex, I love it." He told her and she merely rolled her eyes before lying out on her bed and stretching out. "Well don't just stand there, try it on." She told him.

Justin chuckled slightly at her response before moving over to the opposite side of her room and in front of the body length mirror on her wall. He put the jacket on.

"Looks great on you." Alex said and the straight forward compliment literally took Justin by surprise. He looked at his sister through the mirror he was staring into. She was lying on her side and peering over at him. For some reason he found the sight strangely endearing.

"Yeah." He agreed before taking off the leather/cotton material and placing it back into the black bag. He moved over to Alex's bed and stretched out on his stomach before looking over and gazing at the beautiful woman across from him.

"Thanks" he said quietly, and a rare, yet _often_ at the same time, happy and content moment was shared between the two siblings.

She reached out a hand and lazily ran her fingers through his soft hair. Justin just watched her silently, seemingly mesmerized a bit.

"You're beautiful" he mumbled to himself before he could even think twice.

"What?" Alex asked softly, a look of surprise on her face as her eyes moved from his hair and onto his eyes.

Justin sputtered momentarily but was saved from answering his sister's question as her phone began to buzz, signaling that she had received a text message.

Alex continued to stare at her brother for a few more painful seconds before brushing it off, retrieving her phone from her pocket, and gazing down at the screen.

A small, knowing smile broke out onto the brunette's face.

"About time." She muttered before clicking to open the text message.

Justin watched as his sister brought the phone read over the contents on the screen before smiling, girl-like, very uncharacteristically for Alex.

He tried to ignore the familiar feeling bubbling inside of him as he watched as she quickly texted back the mystery person, who'd managed to emit a girlish smile from her.

"Who's that?" Justin asked curiously as his sister leaned over to the right and placed her phone on her bedside table.

"Blaine." Alex replied simply, as if Justin had merely asked her if she liked food. _So_ not the case.

"_Blaine?!_ As in _Blaine Taylor_ who works for dad?" Justin exclaimed, the feeling in his stomach churning and becoming more recognizable for anger and uncontrollable possessiveness. It rose and took over him and he immediately rose from the bed, and stood firmly on the ground, glaring in shock and dismay at his sister. Not only was his sister talking to some guy; she was talking to Blaine Taylor! _Of course Alex would have to go out with a bad boy! _Justin thought bitterly.

"Know any other Blaine's?" Alex countered, already becoming annoyed by her brother's outburst and by her _brother _in general_._ Why had he sounded so angry and automatically against the thought of her talking to Blaine?! The mood in the room was quickly changing, both the teens noticed it but seemed powerless to stop it from doing so.

"What are you talking to _him_ for?" Justin demanded, distasteful tone all but spelled out in shining lights as he moved to the foot of Alex's bed and ran an angry hand through his short hair.

"Um. We kind of _like_ each other and are _talking_." Alex answered, speaking slow and sarcastically. She didn't see why any of this mattered. Oh how quickly their simple sibling banter had turned into something else, something far more emotional that was sure to turn into a full out argument.

"So you're gonna _date_ this guy?" Justin spat.

"That's usually what the result of _talking_ is." Alex spoke and Justin had to bite the inside of his jaw to keep from losing his cool. He was angry, as it was, at the realization of whom his sister was getting to know, and her sarcastic remarks were not helping.

"You're talking…with Blaine Taylor?...Blain Taylor is talking to you?" Justin said slowly and calmly, or at least what was attempted calmness, as he let the words sink into his head, pacing in front of the bed, seemingly unable to keep still. "How long has this been going on?!" he suddenly demanded after a few seconds, stopping his pacing and glaring at his sister, calmness, attempted calmness, any and all types of calmness flying out the window.

Alex looked at her brother. She could see the anger in his eyes. She knew where this conversation was headed. No. She wasn't gonna let it happen this time, especially since Justin seemed angrier _this_ time than ever before; that couldn't be a good sign.

"We're not gonna do this" Alex spoke, shaking her head, an incredulous smile and look on her face as she too rose from her bed and stood on the other side of it, placing distance between herself and the infuriating man in her bedroom.

"Do what?" Justin questioned, crossing his arms defiantly over his chest.

"This." Alex bit out through clenched teeth. "Every time I try to talk to a guy, you go through this possessive – jealous…rant – act!" the brunette sputtered, arms waving wildly as she struggled for the words in her fit of frustration.

"It's not _jealous_!" Justin immediately argued, glaring across the room at his sister. "And you act like it's just me?!" he continued incredulously. "What about _you_ acting all pissy, back when I went out with Chelsea?!" the 17 year old challenged, mentioning his ex-girlfriend.

"That is completely irrelevant." Alex quickly threw back, seemingly unfazed by his accusing words, though her face appeared to have gone slightly pink. "And at least _**I**_didn't beat her up, like you did Nick!!" she exclaimed, bringing up her last boyfriend.

"Asshole deserved it." Justin bit out and Alex actually couldn't disagree with this statement and so she merely stared at her brother, sputtering incoherently momentarily.

"We're _not_ doing this!" she finally exclaimed incredulously; she had clearly stated this moments ago, yet here they were now, still arguing. "Okay?! It's not gonna happen! I'm talking to Blain, alright?! Period. Point blank. There's nothing you can do about it." She told him, face going from pink to red as her anger and aggravation grew as she spoke, looking straight into Justin's eyes that were burning a hole into hers from his spot across her room.

"Wanna bet?" Justin actually growled, rounding the bed and coming to stand a couple of paces in front of his sister. "You're not talking to him." He told her firmly, looking the Spanish princess directly in her dark brown eyes.

"Yes. I am." Alex bit, speaking slowly and stressing each She took a step closer to him, just to prove that his little "trip around the bed" was not intimidating her in the least.

"Alex, you're not talking to him." Justin said slowly as well, taking another step closer to the brunette, jaw clenched as he glared at her warningly, his face starting to go red as well.

"_Justin_, I am." Alex echoed stubbornly as she glared at him and took another step closer, coming to stand a mere foot away from the furious man.

"You're really not." Justin returned, laughing slightly in bitterness as he rolled his eyes in frustration, struggling to keep his composure as he took yet another step closer towards Alex until the two were barely six inches apart. And that's where they stayed.

They just stayed like that, in an intense glaring war, brown eyes shining angrily and fixed onto passionate gray eyes that had turned a darker shade of gray and were staring with just as much barely controlled anger as its companions, Alex's chest heaving and Justin's Adams apple slowly moving up and down as he swallowed calming breaths that didn't help. He stayed angry, furious, and he stayed there glaring at his sister, the anger and intensity in the room reaching immeasurable levels.

Finally Alex broke the death glare she was giving her brother and huffed loudly.

"Urgh!! I hate you!" she announced before pushing Justin back and away from her with a firm hand; he barely moved but a few inches but this was enough for her to storm away from the prison she had been trapped in by his body.

"I really don't care." Was Justin's answer to Alex's angry announcement as he turned on his heels and immediately followed his sister to the other side of her room. "Just know that you're not dating him." He told the brunette, whom had turned around to glare at him at his previous response.

"You are such an ass." Alex told him, eyes narrowed angrily, before turning back around, seething and face flushed as she continued on to what appeared to be her bedroom door.

"Again. Don't really care." Justin said, hot on the brunette's heels as he walked after her.

"Get out." She coldly, suddenly turning on her heels, having reached her door, she opened it and held it open for her brother to exit out of, but Justin merely stared before biting the inside of his jaw in defiance, something that Alex visibly saw. The sight only caused the Latina to grow angrier, and she let out irate growl and run a frustrated hand through her long brown hair before glaring hard at the man before her.

"Get out." She repeated, eyes shining furiously.

She was pissed, really pissed, Justin knew it, heck a blind person would know it! Justin was never one to back up from a fight though, especially one that he felt passionately about, especially one with Alex, but from the looks of the brunette's flushed skin, heaving chest and messed hair, he had won. Alex looked so frazzled that one would have thought she'd just had wild and hot sex.

_Whoa. So not the visual I needed….. _Justin thought offhandedly to himself before deciding to leave the room and let his sister cool down, not to mention himself.

He stalked deliberately slowly towards the door, which caused his sister to roll her eyes up and sigh heavily; he didn't care; she was not going to date this guy.

Once he reached the door, he stopped right in front of Alex and fixed his sister with a firm stare.

"I mean it. You're not talking to him." He said sternly before finally walking out of the door.

"Yeah whatever jerk; you're not the boss of me." Justin heard his sister mutter angrily and felt his anger flare once more. She was _not_ talking to him! He knew his sister was stubborn and virtually listened to, um let's see **nothing** he told, but by God she was going to listen to this!

"Alex you're not talking to him." Justin spoke once more with finality through the door, which his sister had just attempted to close on his heels, just as he knew she would. "You're not talking to him." He repeated firmly, seething inside all the while.

"I am!" Alex shouted, enraged as she struggled to close the door that Justin's foot was keeping open. "Now go away!" Alex exclaimed furiously before successfully shutting/slamming and locking the door on her angry brother.

Justin was livid. Livid. This was not over! She was not talking to Blain Taylor!! She wasn't! Justin's jaw clenched tightly as he glared angrily at the closed door in front of his face.

"We'll see about that!!" he yelled through the offending boundary, angrily hitting the wall to its right with a flat palm before storming towards his room.

"What the heck was –

Downstairs on the living room couch, Theresa had started to speak, in question to the door slam and loud bang that had occurred after, before another, even louder door slam was heard; it resonated through the house and slightly shook the place.

Jerry and Theresa silently turned and looked at one another with big inquiring eyes. They had heard the angry yells and shouts from their two eldest kids, but the door slams had confirmed it; Alex and Justin were definitely in the midst of another one of their infamous quarrels, and from the sounds of it, it was a serious one.

Theresa gave her husband a worried look and he returned it with equal fear.

"We'll deal with it in the morning." He told her, after a few seconds of silence. He did not wish, any time soon, to be the mediator in the out of control crazy train that was a Justin/Alex quarrel.

"In the morning." Theresa echoed.

**Author's note:**** And that's chapter 3! Now you see why I had to split it from chapter 2. Talk about a painfully LONG chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it. I worked super hard on it! Didn't proof it as much as I should've but hopefully there weren't too many mistakes! I apologize for any! My worst fear is that it came out racy; (seeing as I pieced it together like a puzzle) I hope that was not the case! I will be getting into the real plot of the story in the next chapter! Thanks for sticking with me up to then! I can't wait to **_**really**_** get into things! Please review and let me know what you thought; it really helps so much and encourages!! Thanks sooooo much for reading and God bless!!**


End file.
